Game Saves (Important!)

As I warned in a previous news update, any saves made before this release are not compatible with the new stuff. This means you’ll need to start a new game, though you will be able to import some key items (your wallet, inventory, etc.) from your old save.

This should be the last time I have to break save comparability while in Early Access.

The entire save / load system has been redone to be more robust and even faster for slower systems

Players who have an existing save can import some items – like silver, inventory items, etc. – into their new save by interacting with the suitcase in the player’s room at the inn

The previous version, v0.65, will remain available as a Steam beta branch. Password: previousversion

Gardening

The vast majority of my time these past 4 weeks has been spent on improving the shamefully neglected Gardening hobby. To call it an “overhaul” seems an underestimate – the old system wasn’t just improved, it was deleted and replaced entirely by something more fun and interesting.

The changes are too big and numerous to fully capture in a change log… but I tried to anyway. Grab some seeds, head over to Agrarian Acres, and take a look yourself!

Gardening is now performed via a special UI that’s accessible when interacting with a garden bed

Garden beds now show a little preview of what’s growing in them (including any weeds)

Each plant can be inspected and interacted with via this new screen. Your options depend on your Gardening Abilities

You may now Cultivate plants in your garden. This allows you to perform actions such as watering the plant, adding items to the soil, etc. in order to encourage its growth

Cultivation effects linger (usually a day or two) after being implemented. Look at the plant’s details to see how long it lasts

At first, you can only water your plants to provide a modest boost. As you level up you’ll gain new ways to cultivate your plants

You can also cultivate soil with any item in your inventory. This provides a random effect, and may be better – or worse – than just watering them

Plants can now breed to create new plants automatically

In general, your garden needs one open space, a male plant, and a female plant in order for plants to breed. Both parents must also be a certain level of growth first.

Basic crossbreeding has been added: the look and base plant attributes are based on the mother plant, while growth rates are based on the father plant

There is a very rare chance that the offspring plant will instead be a Hybrid. This is a new type of plant specific to the pairing

Hybrid are rare and very valuable. They are, however, “infertile” and cannot be used to breed again

A huge number of new plants can now be grown in your garden

A small number of existing plants have been eliminated or combined with other plants

All plant sprites have been improved and in some cases completely redone. This includes both mature and in-progress versions

Each plants now have one or more Tags. These specify certain attributes for that particular plant

Plants are now rated like critters and fish. Ratings depend on your skill as a gardener, and a higher rated item sells for more silver

A number of new seasonal plants have been added to the forage list

Plants can now be pruned from your garden. This allows you to remove a still-growing plant

Pruning has a chance of refunding plant seeds back in your inventory (higher chance if just planted)

This new screen can be used to plant new plants, inspect existing plants, clear out weeds, and more

A new info screen now displays key details about your plan including its stage, what each stage looks like, when it was planted, whether it’s under any special effects, and so on

Spores / Seeds have been renamed to simply “Starters”

Wild mushrooms and plants now spawn a little more rarely

Growth rates for all plants have been adjusted. In general, it takes longer for an untended plant to grow to maturity

The Spore Extractor has been renamed to the Seed Extractor, and it’s currently out of order

The existing mushroom growing spots in Agrarian Acres have been replaced

The spore extractor found in Agrarian Acres now takes several days to produce usable starters

New & Improved Features

Fleshed out the main Player page of your journal. It now lists your rank in each hobby and some general information

Added several new catachable critters, like the Foliage Elemental

A new type of chest has been added to the treasure rotation

The “Spicy” effect has been changed to be a bit more useful

Added several new “flavor critters”, like a spider, parrot, and more

Changed player sprite transitions in some situation

Improved look and behavior of cloud shadows

Increased spawn rates for items on the beach

Added large number of new items, furniture, and decorations. Look for them in villager homes throughout the village

Added concept of Elemental Affinity

Renamed Bonfire Beach to Balefire Beach

Changes to Graphics & UI

Forageable items now have a sparkle to differentiate them from plants / objects that are decorations

Added a slight drop shadow effect to all dialogue text

Add transparency to dialog boxes

Improved dialog box title and choices UI

Improved the logic for selecting the next active item in a list

Greatly improved the colors and look of your journal

Added commas to large numbers, like your current cash

Adjusted some UI terms and wording to be more consistent

You can now rotate tools (via the tool menu) using Left / Right on the D-Pad when playing with a controller

Random Name Generation – currently used for naming tamed critters – has been greatly improved

Altered music logic somewhat

Adjusted notification placement to prevent overlap when a lot of stuff is happening

Player names are now restricted to 12 total characters

Changes to Game Feel

I’m still grinding away to find that sweet spot in game feel – something that’s both evocative of retro games (which is especially important given Village Monsters’ story) while still taking modern games into account.

Player acceleration has been modified so that you move in whole pixels

Most other “partial pixel” actions are now rounded up to whole pixels

Default player speed has been somewhat increased

Further adjusted player acceleration and friction

Reduced player speed when stalking with the net

You can now control movement via the d-pad (I have no idea why I didn’t have that before!!)

The camera now tightly follows the player

Bugs Fixed

Fixed a major bug in which the world state wasn’t being properly saved

Fixed a crash when pressing “P” on your keyboard in some situations

Fixed a crash related to cutscenes not properly being set

Fixed the player sprite not changing when you transition rooms

Fixed a variety of collision issue with outdoor decorations, like benches

Fixed several collision issues in Memorial Meadows

Fixed a few issues with garden weeds

Fixed issue where beach shells would disappear

Fixed apple trees still providing apples during off seasons

Fixed an issue where critters would not flee properly if you approached them from certain angles

Fixed an issue where swinging a net drains stamina too early

Fixed some minor issues related to when the player character was in between states, or paused

Fixed the “Exit” option not working on the title screen in some instances